Sickness Abounds!

This past weekend I went a way for a mom's conference. It was wonderful and a much needed break for me. I enjoyed tons of fellowship with some very treasured friends. John, Kayleigh and Zeb survived without me and were all very happy to see me on Sunday afternoon. I was also very happy to see them. Just when I felt like I was getting back into the groove of things I woke up yesterday morning feeling a little achy and tired. I didn't get a lot of sleep during the mom's conference because I chose to talk instead of sleep so I just thought it was the fact that I needed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Oh no, yesterday evening I started running a high fever and felt like I was dying. I think that I have the flu! To make things worse we had already planned for John's teacher and her family to come over for dinner. I barely made it through dinner and putting the kids to bed. I basically sat on the couch and tried to look like I had it together. John and his teacher washed the dishes! I couldn't believe my guest was washing the dishes but inside I was SO thankful. As soon as they left at 8pm I went straight to bed. I have spent most of the day in the bed or on the couch. I feel good when I am full of Tylenol but as soon as it wears off I feel like death again. I am praying that this will not last long and praying more that my kids don't get it.
In the last month or two I feel like all we have been doing is battling sickness. We will have one good week and one bad. We have battled two rounds of the throw up virus. One of those rounds was topped with Zeb having a really bad cough and cold. The cough he still has and it has been a month! So if you can't tell I'm done with sickness in my house. I am ready for us all to be well for a long period of time. I am praying for that anyways!

B is for Bus

Lately, I have been trying to teach Kayleigh the letters of the alphabet. We usually do a letter or two a week. Along with talking about the letters I try to come up with some activity or fun thing to do that starts with that letter. A couple of weeks ago we were studying the letter B and I thought it would be fun to ride the double decker bus with her. Kayleigh and Zeb had a blast. We rode on the top right in front so they could see everything. I actually enjoyed it to because for the first part of the ride it wasn't too crowded and it was nice to see a different view of the city. Zeb goes crazy over buses when we see them on the street so he was especially excited to ride.

Our New Ride!

We decided about two months ago that it was time to purchase an electric bike. The traffic in our city has become increasingly worse over the years so it takes twice as long to get any where in our city now. We can ride in the bike lane with our electric bike which means that we can get places a lot faster and we also feel the freedom to go more as a family. So to be honest this ride isn't as new to us but it has taken me a long time to get a picture of us on the bike. Kayleigh and Zeb love riding! A note for the grandparents, Zeb is actually strapped to me with a baby carrier so he is safe and secure!

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a really fun Halloween. On Friday night we took the kids to a Harvest Festival where they could play games like bean bag toss, throw a football through a hoop, and fishing to win candy. Kayleigh dressed up a like a princess and Zeb was Super Man. Kayleigh always wants to wear her dress up clothes outside and I always say "no" because I don't want them to get dirty. She thought it was a big deal to get to wear her princess dress out on the town. We had a wonderful time and I am pretty sure the kids are still on a sugar high from all the candy!

Check out their hair. John put enough gel in Zeb's hair that on the way to the festival a bug got stuck in there!

Kayleigh and Zeb have been....

Kayleigh and Zeb have been busy having lots of fun this month doing things like.....

Building a fort with their Dad.

Hanging out with their friends.

Getting swaddled in a blanket by their dad.

Building another fort out of pillows all by themselves.

Banging some pots and pans!

Playing in a new kids play area with flying balloons!

A Day of Survival

A couple of weeks ago I promised my friend Kelli that I would watch two of her children for the whole day so she could go to some meetings. What I did not realize or know at the time was that this would also be the same time that John would leave town for two days and my helper would take a week of vacation! So I have been mentally preparing all week about how I would take care of 4 children by myself. This morning started out really well when I read in my devotional about the fruits of the spirit. I'm telling you God has a really good sense of humor. He knew what I needed to hear to prepare me for this day. Kate (age 4), Kayleigh (age 3), John David ( age 2), and Zeb ( age 1) were my companions today.

The morning was going well until I tried to come up with a quiet activity they could do while Zeb was napping. I had a temporary mind block and suggested they work with stamps. Although, I am pretty confident that Kate and Kayleigh can handle a ink pad I wasn't sure how things would go with John David. I left the room for only a few minutes and when I returned all three of them were covered in red ink all over their hands and Kate even had it on her eyes. I quickly decided that my idea was terrible and changed the activity to coloring. Meanwhile I realized that for some reason our power was off. After further investigation I realized we had forgotten to pay our power bill! After Zeb woke up I managed to get all of them downstairs and out the door to pay the bill. I looked at the lady and asked her to please turn it on right away. I seriously think she felt really sorry for me and quickly radioed the maintenance man to turn on our power.

The afternoon went really well. They wore each other out so much that they all slept really long naps. It gave me a chance to breath before they all woke up again. After we said our goodbyes to Kate and John David I decided to be super mom and try to give Kayleigh and Zeb a bath before bed. Zeb quickly reminded me that I am NOT super mom when he decided to poop in the bath tub! I quickly evacuated everyone and disinfected the tub and toys so they could reenter the bathtub and actually get clean.

The first person I thought of today as I was taking care of all four of them was my mom. I am one of four children. I was 4 when my twin sisters where born and 18 months later my brother joined our family. My mom had 4 children 5 years old and under. After today I have a bigger appreciation for her and think that she should have won some major award for raising all of us for 20 some years. Thanks Mom for all the patience you showed with us. I'm pretty sure you are the most patient person in the world at least in my book!

Craft Day

Once a week we go over to my VERY creative friend Brooke's house and do a craft. She has a three year old little boy named Nathan and Kayleigh loves to play with him. A couple of weeks ago they did some finger painting with flour, water, and food coloring. I tried my best to keep Zeb occupied with Nathan's toys but he was dying to join his sister. So I decided to let him give it a try. He LOVED it and decided that he should sit right in the blob of paint. His white cloth diaper became a different color very quickly. I ended up having to give him a bath at their house before we could go home. Since then they have done some bubble painting and built a miniature log cabin with pretzels, a milk carton and icing. I am so thankful for my friend and her willingness to include me in the craft activities.

ZOO!

Last week John had some days off for the holiday so we decided to go to the zoo with our friends. We had a great time. It was very different than an American zoo in that you could touch some of the animals and even feed them. I also saw little kids in a pen running around with a net trying to catch ducks! Not something you see everyday. Kayleigh even had the opportunity to sit on a camel. She was a little scared at first but really liked it by the end. It was a great day and if you come to visit us I will take you there!

I'm not sure why they both have these looks on their faces!

My favorite by far was the tigers. You could actually feed them by taking a fishing pole with meat on the end and lowering it down in their cage. We walked through a walk way with a cage surrounding us to keep us from the tigers. Below are some awesome signs that we couldn't resist taking pictures of.

The sign below says: Tigers like to get on top and pee, yes...tigers truly are not attractive.

Conversations with Kayleigh

Recently I have had very funny and interesting conversations with Kayleigh. I love to just sit and talk with her and observe how her mind works. One night before bed we were looking outside at the moon and the conversation went like this....
Kayleigh: Momma, the moon is broken. ( the moon was not a full moon at the time)
Me: it is??!
Kayleigh: Don't worry momma God will fix it.
Me: He will?
Kayleigh: (she stops for some serious thinking) Right now God is in the Bible but he will come and fix it tomorrow.

I was getting ready to go to Bible Study one night and John was planning on putting her to bed after I left. She was asking me why I had to leave. Then the conversation turned to this.
Kayleigh: Momma, when I am big I will go to Bible study.
Me: You will.
Kayleigh: And when you get little you will stay at home and go to bed.

She has this idea that people can get "little" again. It is hilarious. She also thinks that when Zeb gets older he will become a little girl! I have to work on correcting that view a little bit!

Kayleigh's performance

China just recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communism. All the schools including Kayleigh's was closed for the first eight days of October. Lots of people also were off work and left the city to travel which made the city much more quiet and there was less traffic for us! The day before Kayleigh's school closed each class put on a performance to celebrate this memorable anniversary. The day before the performance Kayleigh's teacher informed me that I should come to her school the next day around 9:30 to watch everyone perform. I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea how to dress her for the next day either so I just sent her in her normal clothes. When I arrived I of course picked her out of the crowd right away. Her red hair tends to stand out. They had dressed all of her class up with blue and white and her teachers had fixed her hair with a big yellow sunflower wrapped around her pig tails. Each class was dressed differently and did a performance. It was very interesting to watch and it was fun to see Kayleigh be a part of her first performance at school. I am looking forward to more interesting days like this to come!

Above are all the kids in her school dressed and ready to perform!

I'm still not quite sure what the red dot was for??!!

Kayleigh didn't sing much since she has only attended school there for about a month but did her best to do the motions to the song.